{"id":5682,"date":"2008-07-17T02:37:42","date_gmt":"2008-07-17T06:37:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=5682"},"modified":"2008-07-17T02:37:42","modified_gmt":"2008-07-17T06:37:42","slug":"jack-brooks-monster-slayer-2007","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2008\/07\/17\/jack-brooks-monster-slayer-2007\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer (2007)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"jackbrooks\"<\/a>Jack Brooks:<\/strong> Fuck man, I broke a bottle over my head once because I couldn\u2019t open it! I mean, you know\u2026 that doesn\u2019t even make any sense!<\/p>\n

People were way too quick to write \u201cJack Brooks\u201d off as some sort of \u201cBuffy\u201d clone when in actuality director Knautz never actually strives to gear his film in that vein. I for one hate \u201cBuffy\u201d so I was very immediate in my defense of the film, and more so after watching it. Director John Knautz\u2019s horror comedy has some epic possibilities with a character almost as cool as Ashley Williams, because even on its small budget and obviously modest production it\u2019s shocking in its ability to involve the viewer with dark comedy that\u2019s actually funny, and horror that\u2019s about as good as anything else being released.<\/p>\n

The origin of Jack Brooks is probably one of the more interesting personality breakdowns thanks to the rather stunning performance by Trevor Matthews who completely grabs the persona of this repressed warrior by the balls delivering a passionate play on a character who could have easily transformed in to a poor man\u2019s Ernest. Matthews is a force of nature in \u201cJack Brooks\u201d delivering some of the most raucous laughter with a man who is so angry and enraged without any idea why. And his rage is elevated by the fact that nothing seems to help, not even his therapist whose new age techniques leave Jack about ready to pummel him in to the ground. But like every story of a good, there\u2019s also the emergence of evil as Jack\u2019s friend and teacher Professor Crowley (the always entertaining Robert Englund) who stumbles on to an ancient relic after a problematic plumbing job from Jack leads him to it.<\/p>\n

Writer John Ainslie seems to have all the right pieces in place as \u201cJack Brooks\u201d ends up a traditional origin story that\u2019s really more entertaining than other superhero origins we\u2019ll catch in theaters. There\u2019s the background of tragedy that keep Jack\u2019s personality bittersweet, the odd and humorous supporting characters and the thankless blue collared job Jack uses to put himself through school. Being a plumber is thankfully not a shtick used to turn Jack in to cartoon as he\u2019s simply a young guy in college whose profession accidentally leads him in to a confrontation with a wicked carnivorous monster one night. You see Crowley\u2019s hunger for flesh becomes almost insatiable and when he finally turns in to a disgusting monster, Jack is left with no other option but to fight the demons back and hopefully come to terms with the demons from his past.<\/p>\n

Ainslie and Knautz\u2019s influences are obvious with allusions to Ash, \u201cHellraiser\u201d and \u201cDemons\u201d but their nods to the aforementioned pop culture facets are subtle enough to where they become detrimental to the story, while Jack is an always fascinating figure who inspires a sense of dignity and potential for greatness that Matthews sells with ease. Once the hell begins, Knautz\u2019s dark comedy becomes a vicious and disturbing horror film with demonic creations who actually seem to be a match for Jack, while their leader takes to some disgusting cannibalism that flexes the surprising ability the special effects team displays with decapitations, mutilations, and gruesome forced demonic digestion. Audiences expecting a full on monster hunting orgy will probably be disappointed, since \u201cJack Brooks\u201d is really more about the formation of the character and his origin.<\/p>\n

There are never actually any hunting of monsters until the last half hour, even if director Knautz feeds up gory monster carnage that are mostly disconnected and told through flashbacks. When we finally see monsters wreaking havoc with Jack Brooks stomping some demon heads, it\u2019s really with about twenty four left in the film, and even then it may not be enough for audiences to be satisfied with, regardless of how vicious and entertaining the battles with the demons and ghouls are. \u201cJack Brooks\u201d is enough of an ode to horror to please the fan boys, and enough of an origin story to leave audiences wanting more. If there\u2019s more up Knautz\u2019s sleeve, I hope he gives it to us soon, because \u201cJack Brooks: Monster Slayer\u201d is too good to be a one shot. There’s not really any actually monster hunting and slaying until the last half hour, but “Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer” is a damn good horror comedy with great performances, a fun if traditional story, and some brutal gore and grue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jack Brooks: Fuck man, I broke a bottle over my head once because I couldn\u2019t open it! I mean, you know\u2026 that doesn\u2019t even make any sense! People were way too quick to write \u201cJack Brooks\u201d off as some sort of \u201cBuffy\u201d clone when in actuality director Knautz never actually strives to gear his film […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[58,71,219,349,477,501,515,678,1087],"class_list":["post-5682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-indie","category-movie-reviews","tag-action","tag-adventure","tag-comedy","tag-fantasy","tag-horror","tag-indie-film","tag-j","tag-monsters","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5682\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}